Richmond midfielder Dion Prestia discusses his fitness, form, Tom Stewart incident and the Tigers’ finals run

After years of soft tissue frustration, Dion Prestia’s body is humming. He had played just nine matches in each of the past two seasons. His full 25-game campaign in 2019, during which he won best and fairest in the middle flag of Richmond’s modern trilogy, looked more like the exception than the rule.

However, the Tigers’ rare absence from last year’s finals series afforded Prestia the opportunity to get a head start on pre-season. And that he did. It has worked a treat, although the early signs were shaky.

He suffered a hamstring tear in the opening round against Carlton, but has barely put a foot wrong since. He missed round eight with some minor ailments, and was then sidelined for a match after the sickening hit he copped from Geelong’s Tom Stewart in round 15. But in between times, he has again been Richmond’s most consistent midfielder.

On most other days, the 29 disposals and two goals he produced against the Hawks would have been enough for three Brownlow votes. Lynch will almost certainly deny him those, but this was an ominous display from a highly accomplished player.

It’s that grunt work from last August that he credits for his season.

“Getting into the gym the day after the last round,” Prestia says.

“I was aiming to get myself strong. I had a hiccup in round one, which was pretty unlucky. But I just feel like my body is so strong at the moment. I’ve been able to consistently train, just consistently do strength work. That’s what I put it down to.”

Prestia is an interesting case in the sense that leaving Dustin Martin’s now spasmodic flourishes to one side, Prestia is the best clearance player in a team whose relationship with clearances – particularly centre clearances – could be described as indifferent at best.

In their successful years under coach Damien Hardwick, the Tigers have tended to rely on scores from turnovers and forward half pressure rather than being any sort of stoppage juggernaut. But as Prestia notes, they tend to up the ante on clearances when the whips are cracking.

The Tigers entered Sunday’s match as the second-poorest clearance team in the league, in front of only the Hawks. Richmond won the clearance count 41-29 and the centre clearances 17-11 against Hawthorn.

“Our clearance numbers are starting to get better. I feel like previous years we started to get our clearance game going during the finals. It’s nice to get the ball forward and get some centre bounce goals as well,” Prestia says.

“We score a lot off turnover and we don’t really put all our emphasis into clearance work. But [ruckman and co-captain] Toby’s [Nankervis] playing some unbelievable footy. This has probably been his best year.

“Myself, Trent [Cotchin] and Shai Bolton … are starting to get higher clearance numbers. It’s probably not something that we focus on but it’s something that we’re doing well.”

Bolton’s rise to become one of the AFL’s most dynamic players means he gets plenty of attention, while Cotchin as a three-time premiership skipper doesn’t generally flow under the radar. That leaves Prestia, still probably a touch underrated according to Hardwick.

“We value him highly in a lot of aspects of his game,” Hardwick says.

“He’s a best and fairest winner in [a] premiership [year] and he’s had significant injuries over the last couple, but on average he probably wins those best and fairests. We know how good a player he is, and it’s important people start to understand what value this guy brings to our footy club.”

Indeed Prestia’s biggest moment in the limelight this year was the unfortunate Stewart incident, for which the Cats star copped a four-match suspension.

At the time, there was considerable discussion about Stewart’s character, perhaps not quite as much about Prestia’s welfare. But the Tiger is prepared to let bygones be bygones.

“I’ve never had a concussion before. That was my first one. I spoke to Tom after the game, he sent me a message which was good of him. It’s an incident you don’t want to see. I’m sure we’ll see each other over the year and be OK,” Prestia says.

“I definitely wouldn’t be [looking for revenge]. That’s not me.”

The best revenge would be another flag. The Tigers would have to defy history to win the premiership from outside the top four, a feat achieved just once under the current top eight system. But at the very least, Richmond will make opponents nervous come the finals.

“I feel like we’re playing some really good footy. Hopefully we can just keep building and see how we go in September,” he says.

“I just feel like we’ve kind of done this every year. We’ve built the season up and we’ve started playing good footy later in the year when we’ve had to. It’s kind of just trusting the system and trusting all the work that we’ve done.

“I don’t think you’d want to play against us. We’ve had the experience of previous years. We are playing some good footy at the moment.”

With Martin and perhaps Dylan Grimes to return from injury, more silverware is not beyond the realms of possibility.